Cuomo shuts down two LI immigration businesses

Continuing his crackdown on illegal immigration scams, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reached an agreement with three companies, two on Long Island, to stop them from operating a business that provides immigration-related services.

The companies, Immigration Solutions and Systems Inc., of New York; Alisandra Multiservices Inc., of Brentwood; and All Immigration Services of Great Neck, must collectively pay $118,000 in penalties for providing unauthorized and fraudulent legal services to immigrant communities.

As of Thursday afternoon, the phone number to Alisandra Multiservices already had been disconnected and no listing was found for All Immigration Services.

According to the settlement, in addition to shutting down, the companies must also notify all former and current clients in writing that they are no longer providing any immigration-related services and submit quarterly reports to Cuomo’s office of any complaints from the public.

In order to provide legal-related immigration services, state and federal law dictate that an individual must either be admitted to practice law or have obtained accreditation from the Board of Immigration Appeals. Businesses and individuals are able to provide other immigration services without a license, but those services must be limited to clerical duties.

“The consequences of bad legal advice can be absolutely devastating,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Fraudulent legal services can haunt individuals and their families for a lifetime. Companies and individuals that represent someone in a legal proceeding without having the authority to do so must be stopped, and my office will hold them accountable.”

Cuomo also announced that his office has filed lawsuits in New York State Supreme Court against three other companies for providing illegal legal services to immigrants.

According to the lawsuits, those companies, Immigration Community Service Corporation and Professional Solutions Consultants, both of Manhattan, and Centro Santa Ana of Queens, offered legal advice to immigrants without being licensed attorneys or having the proper accreditation.

In thousands of cases across New York City and Long Island, the companies unlawfully filed immigration petitions with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of immigrants and their families, jeopardizing efforts to obtain legal status, Cuomo said.

The lawsuits also allege that the companies and their owners failed to provide consumers with written contracts in both the consumer’s native language and English, as required by law.

The lawsuits seek to permanently bar the companies and their owners from providing immigration-related services in the future and seek penalties for these actions.

Cuomo’s actions follow up on an earlier investigation by Cuomo when he filed a lawsuit against Miriam Hernandez of Queens for defrauding dozens of immigrants of more than $250,000. In May, Cuomo issued more than 50 subpoenas to companies and individuals allegedly engaged in immigration services fraud.

One comment

Unfortunately, fraud perpetrated on immigrants
is just one more problem associated the hugely
complex issue of immigration law in the U.S.
At the moment, the existing laws cause problems
for all constituencies. We have to hope that
the U.S. government will soon make a serious
effort to pass legislation that resolves some
of these problems.
— David Pinkowitz (www.dcpmarketing.com)